


How Not To Tell Someone You're a Superhero

by sgteam14283



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/M, Gen, NaNoWriMo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 04:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6596218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgteam14283/pseuds/sgteam14283
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To be fair after a long night of crime fighting all apartment buildings look the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Not To Tell Someone You're a Superhero

**Author's Note:**

> Part one of a superhero trilogy where one or both Clint and Natasha are superheroes/have superpowers and the misadventures that happens, taken from the Superhero prompts on Tumblr. Also written during NaNoWriMo and enjoy!

Clint liked his third floor apartment, it gave him a good view of the downtown area and he could sit on the rusted fire escape landing that passed for a balcony to enjoy the night air. He’d lived in Chicago for the last couple of years and really liked the urban atmosphere. If he needed to get out he could always go over to the neighborhood bar, hop over to Millennium Park for a concert or some kind of event, or even go down to the lake front and enjoy watching the ships going in and out of the harbor.

Recently he’d been going out with a girl he’d met through one of his friends and for once, things seemed to be going good; although with two divorces behind him he wasn’t looking to rush things. And Natasha seemed to be on the same page which was nice because then there wasn’t all this extra pressure of trying fit the relationship into a box neither of them were comfortable with.

“ _Although she does seem to dash off at the most inconvenient times._ ” Clint thought as he sat on the roof of his building and watched the setting sun reflecting off of the buildings. “ _But I suppose that’s the life of a news reporter, always having to run off to cover a developing story._ ”

Suddenly there was a muffled boom and sirens started blaring in the distance. Clint stood at the noise, trying to see if he could spot where the commotion was coming from. Seeing smoke drifting up from the north side of the city, in the disappearing sunlight Clint saw two small figures dart up into the sky and fly into the distance. Squinting Clint knew that one of the figures was most likely Astral Talon, the city’s resident superhero. No one really knew who she was, other than the brunette superhero packed a powerful punch and even though she had a task-force trying to catch her, always helped when it was needed. Almost all the papers loved her, saying that she was the reason crime was down five percent and still declining. But at the same time the mayor’s office denounced her-saying that she endangered civilian lives, cost millions in damages, and should just let the police do their jobs.

“ _Like the Chicago cops were doing anything before this._ ” Clint inwardly rolled his eyes while sitting back down and absently checking his phone to see if Natasha had returned his text. They had made tentative plans to hang out tonight but seeing that she hadn’t responded made him think that they weren’t. “ _She probably got sent to cover the explosion that just happened._ ” he thought while making his way down the fire escape to his landing and slipping into his apartment through his window. Closing it but not turning the latch, it was still warm out and he could use the cool breeze, Clint decided to catch the rest of the Cubs game and headed to his room.

—

Natasha stifled a yawn and tried to keep her eyes open as she gently landed on the rooftop of her building, it had been a long night fighting crime and she was exhausted. Normally she just flew to her window, landing on the fire escape after making sure no one was around, but the fight with Blizzard Fist had lasted much longer than she originally thought and she still did her normal patrols around the neighborhoods she was more tired than normal and needed a moment to rest.

Plus after digging her phone from its hiding spot Natasha saw that she’d missed a text from Clint. Feeling guilty for semi-ditching him, even if they hadn’t made solid plans, Natasha was about to reply with some vague answer about having to meet a deadline when another yawn almost split her face in two and she knew that she needed to get some sleep. “ _I’ll just text him later today._ ” she thought while pulling the brunette wig off and running a hand through her red hair, trying to not make a lot of noise as she made her way down the fire escape.

Reaching her apartment window, Natasha silently lifted the window and crawled in-relaxing as she dropped the wig by the couch and unceremoniously flopped down on the couch, falling asleep almost right away. “ _This couch is so much softer when I’m exhausted._ ” Natasha dimly thought as she drifted off.

Clint woke up as he heard a muffled thump but after a quick glance and his phone told him that he still had four hours until his alarm went off for work so he figured that it was a delivery truck outside. So he went back to sleep but all too soon his alarm was blaring and he forced himself up. The Cubs game had gone into extra innings so he’d gotten to bed at a later hour than normal, but it only took him a few extra seconds in the shower to fully wake up.

Running a towel through his hair as he walked out into his living room, Clint realized that the room was much cooler than it normally was in the morning and looked towards the window-seeing through the towel blocking most of his vision that it was open. “Aw man, I thought I closed it.” Clint muttered to himself as he walked towards the window and closed it.

Pushing the towel down around his neck Clint turned around, looking forwards to the fresh cup of coffee to fully wake him up, and froze mid-step when his eyes landed on the couch and the body in black spandex that was on it.

“Oh my God!” Clint shouted, jumping at the sight of the body and brown wig that was lying next to the couch. “What do you want!?”

“Hmm?” Natasha stirred, the shout pulling her out of the deep sleep she’d been enjoying, and sat up while squinting in the morning light. Blinking rapidly she turned her bleary eyes towards the shouting figure and when she realized she didn’t know the person in her apartment jumped up, immediately shifting into a fighting stance. “Hey!” she shouted, curling her hands into fists. “You picked the wrong apartment to break into!”

“Me? You’re the one who-” Clint started to say but broke off when his brain clicked. “Natasha?”

Natasha paused at recognizing the voice and tilted her head to the side, “Clint?”

“What are you doing here?” They said at the same time, each wondering why the other was in their apartment.

“Why are you dressed in spandex?”

“Why is your hair wet? Did you use my shower?”

Clint shot Natasha a confused look, “Your shower? This is my apartment.”

“No...this is _my_ apartment.” Natasha replied, looking around the room and slowly realizing that the furniture was all wrong and the knick-knacks weren’t hers. “Oh…this isn’t my apartment. Well this is awkward.”

“Yeah a little…was there some costume party you had to cover?” Clint asked as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “You look an awful lot like Astral Talon…” Then he glanced down and saw the brown wig on the floor, his brain putting two and two together and felt the realization dawn on his face.

“ _Oh boy here we go._ ” Natasha thought as she saw Clint figure everything out and knew that they were going to have a long talk. “ _But not now._ ”

Letting out a nervous laugh she scooped up the wig and dashed for the window. “We can talk about this later.” She said over her shoulder while throwing her wig onto the fire escape landing so she could get a better grip the windowsill.

“But-”

Natasha paused, one leg on the landing and the other half way off the floor and sighed. “Trust me we will, but I have to get to my actual apartment and get ready for work.” She picked her wig back up, she was going to have to dry clean it again, and raced up the fire escape-not trying to cover her steps.

Clint took a half-hearted step towards the window as Natasha thundered up the steps. Sticking his head out the window he twisted around to look up, hoping to catch a glimpse of Natasha as she disappeared, but she was gone. Pulling his head back inside Clint scratched his head, trying to process everything that had happened in the last five minutes. “ _Natasha is Astral Talon…okay then._ ” he thought while shaking his head to clear his thoughts. Glancing at the clock on the wall told him he had about fifteen minutes before he’d be late for work so he decided to skip the coffee, threw on his clothes, and grabbed a breakfast bar before heading out the door.

The day passed in a blur, his mind kept thinking about the morning’s events as his body went through the motions, and Clint was glad when he was able to take the elevated back to his apartment. He’d been home for an hour when his phone chirped with an incoming message and he saw it was from Natasha.

_Pizza and beer at your place? My treat._

Clint couldn’t help but chuckle at how normal the message was but what it meant carried a heavier meaning. _Sure._

_Great! See you in thirty._

Natasha knocked on Clint’s apartment door and leaned on the balls of her feet, this was going to be almost as awkward as this morning. “ _Well at least now when I blow him off he won’t think that I’m just avoiding him._ ” she thought as the door opened and she flashed him a smile while handing him the pizza. “You like Hawaiian right?”

“Yeah. Don’t understand why so many people don’t like pineapple on their pizza.” Clint said as he stepped back to let Natasha into his place.

“I know right? It has such a good flavor.”

“Why don’t we take this up to the roof? We might be able to hear the concert at Millennium Park from there.”

“Sounds good.” Natasha said as she followed Clint out onto the fire escape and up to the rooftop. They were quiet through the first couple of slices, listening to the distant noise of the concert at the park and each trying to think of how to bring up the elephant in the room but not knowing how to do it.

Clint opened another beer while sitting back and glancing at Natasha, her face slightly scrunched up in an adorable way and he guessed that she was trying to think of how to explain everything that had happened this morning. “So…how fast can you fly? Like Speedster fast or Ultraman fast?”

Natasha smiled at the comparisons, glad for the ice breaker. “Not as fast as the Speedster but just under Ultraman-although that’s not a fair comparison because Ultraman isn’t from around here.”

“That’s an understatement.” Clint chuckled as he took the second to last slice of pizza. “If I can ask, how did you get apartments mixed up?”

“A long night of crimefighting followed by the fact that I felt bad for not being able to text you last night. And the fact that from above, most apartment complexes look the same.”

“Well if it’s any consolation apartment complexes do look the same from the rooftops.”

Natasha chuckled while taking a sip of her beer. “Trust me, being a superhero isn't that glamorous. There’s a lot of kicking and punching, along with the occasional cheesy one-liner. But having someone who’s not mixed up in all that crazy is nice.”

Clint raised an eyebrow at the comment, “Really? And I’m…not a liability?”

“Can you handle yourself in a fight?”

“Former Army specialist so…yeah.”

“Then it’s not a problem.” Natasha said as she took the last slice of pizza with a smile. “Especially since the villains I fight are smart enough to realize that if they somehow discover my real name and somehow figure out who I’m seeing, that they can most likely handle themselves.”

Clint laughed at the statement, “Well at least now if you don’t answer my texts I’ll know that you’re not working on a story.”

Natasha pulled out two new beers, handed one to Clint, and they raised the bottles in a toast. “Most of the time.” She winked as Clint smiled at the statement.

“Where did you come up with the name Astral Talon?”

Natasha shook her head while smiling, “Sorry but that’s a story for our third date.”

“So there’s hope for more dates then.”

Natasha looked at Clint for second, before answering. “Yeah…there is.”


End file.
